Age-group races for the 2010 Hy-Vee Triathlon will have a decidedly Midwestern flavor, but the various fields will be sprinkled with athletes who log a lot of miles before they even reach the start line at Raccoon River Park.

A review of registered competitors as of March 19 shows the overwhelming majority hail from Iowa and surrounding states. They will be joined by individuals and team members from locales as far away as Riverview, Fla. (39-year-old Clydesdale competitor George Busi) and Stormville, N.Y. (Thaison Do, a 40-year-old age-grouper.)

Also registered is Australian Mark Flockhart, 53, from New South Wales. Flockhart was fifth in his group and 258th overall in last year’s Port Macquarie Ironman race.

More than 750 people and 80 teams have already signed up for the June 13 Hy-Vee event. Organizers expect a rush of athletes as the weather becomes more suited to racing and athletes firm up plans for the season.

“It depends on work schedule, budget, etcetera, but I would love to be there,” says Californian Brian Melekian, an Ironman competitor from the Los Angeles area who hopes to use the Hy-Vee event to ramp up conditioning for longer races in the fall.

California leads the pack for the number of triathletes per capita, according to USA Triathlon and the online training magazine slowtwitch.com. Golden State athletes registered for Hy-Vee event include Paul Allen, 44, of El Cerritos, who will swim for a co-ed team, and Morgan Day, 31, of San Luis Obispo, the swimmer for a female team. Rick Grebner, 48, of Mission Veijo (15th in the U.S. Cup cross-country bike race on March 15) and Jess Kelsey, 31, of Oakland (30 endurance events last year) are a few of the other age-group Californians set to compete in West Des Moines. The West Coast will also send Bridget Dawson, 53, and Colin O’Brady, 25, both from Portland, Ore., along with David Steiner, 52, of Kirkland, Wash.

A slowtwitch.com readership survey found the New York has supplanted Texas for the second-highest number of U.S. triathletes. Besides Do—he finished 1,273rd in February’s 3,367-person Rock ‘n’ Roll Mardi Gras Half-Marathon in New Orleans— the Empire State will be represented at Hy-Vee events by age-groupers Michael Kimelman, 31, of New York City (35th of 206 competitors in the Feb. 4 Empire State Building Run-up) and Keegan Kelsey, 31 of Ithaca.

The East Coast will also send individuals and team members to West Des Moines from Alexandria , Va. (Shawn Johns, 45, and Carrie Evavold, 39); Chevy Chase, Md.; Wilmington, Del.; Ramsey, N.J. (Randy and Mara Miller will compete in age-group events); Lortan, Va.; Bristow, Va.; Westfield, Mass.; Point Pleasant, N.J.; and Cos Cob, Conn.

Colorado, which ranked sixth on the slowtwitch.com survey, had 15 athletes registered as of March 19. Texas (third on the survey) had four. Two are from Houston, which reported the largest growth in numbers among metropolitan areas.

Age is Only a Number
More than 9 in 10 of USA Triathlon’s estimated 120,000 members are age-group competitors.

There is a distinct rule for determining the “race age,” which uses birth year rather than the athlete’s age on race day.

The race age is the same for all sanctioned events in a calendar year. To find your race age, simply subtract your year of birth from 2010.

Participants can also choose to race by weight class. Males must weigh 200 pounds or more and females must weigh 150 pounds or more to compete in the weight classes. Additionally, there are two age divisions for weight classes, 40 and over and 39 and under.
Here are the rules for age and weight:

• All age group athletes must participate and compete in the age group division corresponding to the athlete's age on Dec. 31 of the year of the event.
   
• Clydesdale/Athena Categories. The official minimum weight standard for this category is 200 pounds for men, 150 pounds for women, to be monitored by the local race director. The age breakdown will be 39 and younger and 40 and older.

Want to learn more about a specific rule? email communications@usatriathlon.org.